Why Is the Analytical Method Absent in Islamic Scholarship?

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 17 August 2024 Science, Logic and Mathematics Have No Religion, And Yet Religious Leaders Tried To Refute Scientific Theories With Christian, Islamic Or Vedic Science, Logic Or Mathematics And Fell Flat On Their Faces. This Raises the Question Of These Religious Leaders' Roles In This Discourse. These Disciplines Are Universal, Transcending Religious Boundaries. Their Behaviour Pretending To Convey God’s Truth Has Dealt A Deathly Blow To Their Credibility And, In Turn, To The Credibility Of Religion Itself, From Which It Has Not Recovered. ------ Very few people have a love of mathematics and logic. Most people dread these subjects and mentally switch off when the subject comes up in conversation or their readings. They make no effort to understand when something is explained using mathematics or logic. People love stories and narratives and can be made to believe anything through a story told well. Poetry has the same power and effect. People quote poetry as gospel even when it is nonsensical. This explains the hold and power of the ahadith on the people and the scholars. The ahadith are narratives attributed to the Prophet. The trait is shared across the board in every culture, race, religion and region. However, what about the crème de la crème of the scholars? As far as religious scholars are concerned, they are like the common folk, and this is also true across the board in every religion, which is why every religion is stuck in the past without fresh thinking and rejection of what is irrational. Science, logic and mathematics have no religion, and yet religious leaders tried to refute scientific theories with Christian, Islamic or Vedic science, logic or mathematics and fell flat on their faces. This raises the question of these religious leaders' roles in this discourse. These disciplines are universal, transcending religious boundaries. Their behaviour pretending to convey God’s truth has dealt a deathly blow to their credibility and, in turn, to the credibility of religion itself, from which it has not recovered. The proof that logic and mathematics are universally valid is that they are the tools and language to understand and accurately describe the Universe and all its phenomena. They hold in all possible universes, including the universe of religious discourse. This universality makes them not just relevant but essential to all areas of study, including religious scholarship. It's a discourse that includes everyone, transcending boundaries and uniting us in a common language of understanding. For a person with a solid academic foundation in these subjects, it is instinctive to think logically always. A logical mind is sensitive and alert to the finding of a counter-example that disproves a theory. An illogical mind glosses over when a counter-example is brought to his attention. He has no use for logic and continues believing in the theory invalidated by the counter-example. As the psychologist Daniel Gilbert observed, disbelieving is hard work, and the analytical brain is quickly tired. I wonder whether most people haven’t completely lost their capacity for logical thinking. Any organ is atrophied from disuse, and so is the case of the analytical part of most people's brains. Why have silly concepts like the prophets were “Masum”, meaning infallible and incapable of doing any wrong, not only survived to this day when counterexamples are available in the Quran? Worse still, this property is ascribed to lesser mortals, leading to the blind following of such men to the detriment of religion itself. The counter-examples from the Quran are to be found in the stories of the prophet Moses, who was, at the very least, guilty of accidental manslaughter for which he had to flee Egypt to escape punishment. The second counter-example is that of Prophet Yunus, who abandoned his mission, giving up on the people without Allah’s permission. He was made to repent and return to find that the people had accepted Islam. His example is cited to Prophet Muhammad as a warning asking him not to be impatient like him. There is also mild disapproval of the acts of omission and commission of Prophets Ibrahim and Muhammad. May peace be upon all of them. The Quran even provides direct and incontrovertible evidence that not all parts of the Quran were understood by the Prophet. This is also proof that the Prophet couldn’t be its author. Take verses 4:11,12 on the distribution of inheritance. These are sufficient to deal with every case if you can think logically and have some skill in middle-school-level mathematics. However, these two verses were insufficient for the people of the 7th century, which necessitated the revelation of 4:176, the very last verse of the Quran to be revealed, although Surah 4 (An-Nisaa) is among the very early Medinian Surahs (92 in chronological order). Incidentally, 4:176 contradicts 4:12, which the scholars try explaining away by saying that 4:12 covers uterine siblings (common mother but different fathers) and 4:176 covers agnate siblings (common father). The explanation is unsatisfactory on multiple grounds. Why did the Quran provide only for uterine siblings for six years, ignoring the claim of agnate and full siblings? If 4:12 is used for uterine siblings and 4:176 for agnate and full siblings, it could result in uterine siblings getting more than agnate siblings in some cases and the opposite in others. Moreover, since the division in 4:12 is an equal share for males and females, the uterine female siblings get more than the agnate female siblings. None of this makes sense. So, either 4:12 applies or 4:176 but not both. (Briefly, the nature of the difficulty requiring 4:176 to be revealed was that in the absence of the children of the deceased, there are no residuaries but only those with a fixed share, and their fractional shares do not add up to one. Residuaries are heirs who inherit whatever remains after those with a fixed share get their part, ensuring that all is distributed and nothing remains. The problem was “solved” by making siblings residuaries while in 4:12, they have a fixed share.) Read: Inadequacies and Errors of Classical Islamic Fiqh - Inheritance Related Calculations What Is the Learning from The Example? Allah tells us that the ahadith, even if proven authentic, is only an honest opinion of the Prophet and his advice to the best of his knowledge and belief. They are neither infallible nor perfect. So, if you arrive at different conclusions from a logical analysis of the verses relevant to the subject, go by logic and not opinion. Today, when we can do without 4:176, it should be treated as abrogated. It was a temporary fix to a problem and should be treated as such. When I started writing articles based on logical text analysis, I expected the findings to gain ready acceptance, but it was a slow grind. My greatest disappointment was when people who could understand dug in even though they lacked a logical argument simply because they had published books and felt compelled to stick to whatever position they had taken. Scholars with publications are generally reluctant to admit they made a mistake, especially when pointed out by what they think is a maverick amateur. They ask, “What are your credentials?” and cite theirs. They forget that the Quran repudiates this line of argument and claims to superiority of knowledge and wisdom. If He wills, Allah can grant understanding and insight to even an Ummi. ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and is an independent IT consultant after having served in both the Public and Private sector in responsible positions for over three decades. He has spent years studying Quran in-depth and made seminal contributions to its interpretation. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/debating-islam/analytical-method-islamic-scholarship/d/132966 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism